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Patterns of Human Evolution in Northeast Asia with a Particular Focus on Salkhit

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Patterns of Human Evolution in Northeast Asia with a Particular Focus on Salkhit Quaternary International 400 (2016) 175e179 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint Patterns of human evolution in northeast Asia with a particular focus on Salkhit Damdinsuren Tseveendorj a, Byambaa Gunchinsuren a, Eregzen Gelegdorj a, Seonbok Yi b, * Sang-Hee Lee c, a Institute of Archaeology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar 51, Mongolia b Department of Archaeology, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea c Department of Anthropology, University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521-0418, USA article info abstract Article history: Despite the well published mixture of archaic and modern features in fossil hominins, a presence of Available online 12 February 2016 archaic features is still used as a basis for a claim of an archaic specimen. In this paper, the archaic appearance of a hominin fossil specimen from Salkhit, Mongolia, is examined to ask if Salkhit looks Keywords: archaic because it is an archaic specimen like a classic Homo erectus. The morphology and metrics of the Human evolution Salkhit skullcap was compared with Middle and Late Pleistocene hominin fossils from Zhoukoudian: Paleoanthropology Locality 1 and Upper Cave. Results show that the archaic features that Salkhit shares with the Locality 1 Archaic sample are also shared with the other sample, Upper Cave. On the basis of metrics, Salkhit is interme- Morphology Salkhit diate between the Locality 1 and the Upper Cave specimens. Salkhit is different from the Middle Pleis- Northeast Asia tocene materials in the same way later hominins differ from the Middle Pleistocene sample, in having a broader frontal and thinner supraorbital region. This may reflect encephalization and gracilization, a modernization trend found in many places. Results of this paper are not compatible with the null hy- pothesis that Salkhit is like a member of the Zhoukoudian H. erectus sample. Archaic features may have different explanations: they can be diagnostic features of an archaic species, or regionally predominant features. It is concluded that the latter explains the archaic features of Salkhit. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction fossil species alone is not a reliable or accurate biostratigraphic marker of time. It is well documented in paleoanthropology literature that In the absence of chronometric dating, the various dates that archaic features appear in archaic specimens as well as later have been suggested range from early Middle Pleistocene specimens in a mixture of archaic and modern features (Wolpoff, (Tseveendorj et al., 2006; Bae, 2010) to terminal Late Pleistocene 1999). However, it still is a practice often found that a presence of (Kaifu and Fujita, 2012). Coppens et al. (2008) used a multidi- an archaic feature alone provides a basis for a diagnosis of a mensional scaling method to analyze the mixture of archaic and membership in an archaic species. modern features, and concluded that the Salkhit skullcap clusters A skullcap found in Salkhit, Mongolia (48 N, 112 E) was given a with Neandertals, Homo erectus, archaic Homo sapiens, but ruled new genus Mongolanthropus, based on its archaic morphology, with out modern H. sapiens. Coppens et al.'s study focused on the a suggested date of 800,000 years, based on a woolly rhinoceros possible affinity between Salkhit and the Neandertals. If so, it discovered in the vicinity (Tseveendorj et al., 2006). The woolly would extend the Neandertal distribution further east of Okladni- rhinoceros, however, was not found together with the hominin kov Cave, currently the easternmost Neandertal site (Bae, 2010; fossil, and therefore it is uncertain that they are contemporaneous. Derevianko, 2011). Furthermore, woolly rhinoceros has a lengthy tenure of appearance The Salkhit specimen is unlikely to be as old as 800,000 years. It throughout Pleistocene (Boeskorov, 2012) that the presence of the could be of Middle Pleistocene age: hominins left evidence from the late Early Pleistocene in what is now the mainland Asia continent and south Asia (Zhu et al., 2001, 2003, 2004, 2008; Pappu et al., * Corresponding author. 2011). Hominin presence is found in Europe as early as 1 Ma E-mail address: [email protected] (S.-H. Lee). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.08.074 1040-6182/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 176 D. Tseveendorj et al. / Quaternary International 400 (2016) 175e179 (Dennell, 2003). Given the long history of hominin occupation in difference in the anterior projection between the medial and the Asia and Europe, this paper considers the possibility that Salkhit is lateral portions. The lateral portion of the supraorbital region turns Middle Pleistocene in age. into a slight knob at the lateral ends in both Salkhit and Locality 1 sample; however, the thickening at the lateral ends of the supra- 2. Methods and materials orbitals is not comparable to that seen in the Zhoukoudian sample which has a knobbed look. In Salkhit the lateral torus is continuous, The Salkhit skullcap is compared with the only hominin sample but more gracile than the medial portion; in Locality 1, the lateral of Middle and Late Pleistocene specimens from the geographic vi- portion is thicker and smoother, without any interruption in the cinity: Zhoukoudian Locality 1 and Upper Cave. Other hominin surface of the torus; the supraorbital torus reaches maximum fossils are isolated individual finds. Because only the skullcap is thickness toward the lateral end to form a knob. preserved, comparisons were limited, based on morphology and In Salkhit, there is a weak supraorbital sulcus that does not metrics. Observation and measurements for the Salkhit skullcap continue across the midline. In contrast, in the Locality 1 sample, were taken on the original specimen as well as on a cast. Photo- the sulcus is an actual gutter that is dipping (as in Skull XII) or graphs are from the original specimen (Fig. 1). Comparison with shallow and broad (as in Skull V), and is most pronounced where other specimens was done with casts only. the supraorbital torus is the thickest. In Salkhit and Locality 1 crania, the supraorbitals are different 3. Results and discussion morphologically between the medial and the lateral halves. The contrast between the medial and the lateral portions of the su- 3.1. Morphological comparison praorbital region of Salkhit takes a different pattern in the Locality 1 sample. In the Locality 1 sample, the medial and lateral portions do At first glance, Salkhit shares similarity in several morphological not have an incisura. The medial portion is laterally marked by a traits with Locality 1. Salkhit has a weak sagittal keel on the frontal supraorbital process (most prominent in Skull X). There is an inci- between glabella and bregma, but there is no prebregmatic sura in Salkhit, which is noted as a modern human feature by eminence. However, the sagittal keel in Salkhit is not as prominent Weidenreich (1943 p. 29). A supraorbital foramen is absent in the as in the Zhoukoudian specimens, most prominently expressed in Locality 1 sample, while a double-notch is in the location of the Zhoukoudian XII, and comparably weak in Upper Cave 101. supraorbital process in Skull XII. The supraorbital region of the Salkhit skullcap plays a major role When Salkhit is compared with the three specimens in Upper in giving an archaic appearance of the specimen (Fig. 2). Seen from Cave, two specimens, UC 102 and UC 103, have a superciliary arch the front, the torus forms an MÀ or a seagull-shape, contributed by and do not have a supraorbital torus. UC 101 shows a surprising the pinching of the glabellar torus. The glabellar torus rises above similarity with Salkhit in many aspects. In both Salkhit and UC 101, the nasal bridge and is thinner in supero-inferior height than the the supraorbital bar continues throughout the supraorbtial region; supraorbital torus in Salkhit and in some Locality 1 crania (espe- the medial portions are thicker than the lateral portions; the su- cially in Skull XII (L3)) and Upper Cave (UC 101), but not in others praorbital torus thickens at the lateral end, resulting in a slightly (such as Skull V). knobbed look. There is a weak but discernible groove that separates The medial portion of the supraorbitals has greater supero- the torus into two components, medial and lateral. In Salkhit, the inferior thickness than the lateral portion, but there is no medial and the lateral portions of the left supraorbital are Fig. 1. Salkhit skullcap: (a) superior view; (b) lateral view; (c) anterior view. D. Tseveendorj et al. / Quaternary International 400 (2016) 175e179 177 Fig. 2. Anterior views showing variation in supraorbital regions of Salkhit and Locality 1 specimens. The specimens are not in the same orientation. demarcated by a faint groove, which is weaker than is observed in 3.2. Metric comparison UC 101; it is almost an uninterrupted continuation of a torus on the right side, but it cannot be ascertained due to a possible distortion In metric measurements, some variables show Salkhit to be in- from the healed wound. between Locality 1 and Upper Cave (Fig. 3), while other variables In the parietals, there is no keel on the sagittal suture of Salkhit, are non-informative. Due to the small sample size, statistical tests in contrast to the Locality 1 specimens. In both Salkhit and UC 101, were not performed. there is a raised ridge that runs parallel to the sagittal suture, and In frontal breadth, Salkhit at 98.06 mm is greater than the range the ridges follow the suture, diverging as they swerve posterior and of the Locality 1 sample (X, XI, XII, V), from 85.7 to 89 mm inferior. This feature is also seen in Locality 1 Skull XII. (mean ¼ 87.5 mm), and smaller than the range of the Upper Cave In Salkhit, the nasofrontal and frontomaxillar sutures form a sample (from 102 to 109.3 mm).
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